


off the light

by turnaboutprince



Category: Starfighter (Comic), Starfighter Eclipse
Genre: Angst, Ficlet, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, and some deimos/ethos, i just wanted to write some angst lbr, im playing fast and loose with eclipse canon re: how the mind-control light works lmao, this ship is criminally underrated yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 18:53:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18816949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turnaboutprince/pseuds/turnaboutprince
Summary: "Cain is saying something - about Abel, probably - but Deimos stops listening the second he sees Ethos fall.Deimos is on the other side of the bridge and kneeling beside Ethos before he has even realized he’s moving."





	off the light

_The moment Ethos looks at the monitor he realizes it’s a mistake, but by then it’s too late. The light is already in his head, pushing into every corner of his suddenly fragile mind, lighting his very being on terrible, white-hot fire. He can’t see or even hear anything over the light, and that scares some distant, rational part of him because he knows that he must be screaming._

Cain is saying something - about Abel, probably - but Deimos stops listening the second he sees Ethos fall. There had been a bright light that flashed from Ethos’ computer monitor, and suddenly the navigator had just… collapsed. As if someone had cut a chord. He hadn’t even broken the fall with his hands, because he had been too busy clutching his head, and Deimos thinks the thud of Ethos hitting the floor would probably have sounded ugly had it not been drowned out by pained, terrified screaming that absolutely tears at Deimos’ heart. Deimos is on the other side of the bridge and kneeling beside Ethos before he has even realized he’s moving. He wraps an arm around Ethos’ shoulders and lifts him so he’s leaning against Deimos’ chest instead of the hard metal floor. Ethos is still holding his head as if it might physically break should he let go, and his anguished wails are turning ragged as his throat grows weary. Deimos covers his mouth in an admittedly desperate effort of quiet him, and Ethos’ eyes go wide in surprise before he whimpers against Deimos’ palm and breaks into sobs. Deimos pulls Ethos close and presses a kiss into his sweat-soaked hair before looking up to see a few gaping navigators and a shock-stilled Cain staring at them.

“Get the fucking MO,” Deimos rasps at Cain, and for the first time ever, Cain does as Deimos tells him without a moment’s hesitation.

_Ethos wants to die. He wants the light to get it over with and finish consuming him so his head will stop hurting. Mother, he just wants to stop hurting._

Two minutes ago Deimos would never have believed he could miss Ethos’ initial, agonized screams, but this, he thinks, is worse. Ethos is crying quietly, fists tearing at his now-tangled mess of hair with force that must be painful, and between tired breaths he’s whispering into Deimos’ shirt a mantra of pain and utter defeat. At first it was blessedly unintelligible, but after listening for a moment Deimos started to make out words that stilled his heart.

“Kill me, oh mother, please, kill me, kill me…”

Deimos knows what it is to beg any available deity for the mercy of death, and he would happily have given his own life to let Ethos never have to feel that way. Sweet, kind, innocent Ethos, who had slowly but surely stripped Deimos of all his carefully built defenses and determinedly made a place for himself in Deimos’ scarred little heart, turning Deimos’ entire world around in the process. Ethos, who had vowed to never let Deimos get hurt again. Deimos hadn’t believed him, of course he hadn’t, but Ethos had looked so serious and earnest that for the first time since childhood Deimos had genuinely wished he could believe in happy endings.

Deimos strokes Ethos’ back, kisses the top of his head again and again and hates himself for not knowing what else to do.


End file.
